What is your very first memory of seeing a Cobra, live and in person...

[crASH]

...and not just in a picture.

Some of you guys will remember them from when they were new...

For me...my first specific memory of seeing one live, and in-person (original or replica) was when I was traveling for a living in the early '80s. I remember exactly where I was. Headed north on I-26 from Greenville SC to Asheville NC just above the state line. I saw a really nice RV headed south in the opposite direction and instead of towing a little cheap "dinghy" behind, they were towing a Cobra. I thought it was the coolest thing I ever saw. Never forgot it.

Ash

"crASH"

[Wbulk]

It was 1967. I stopped by an expensive sports car dealer on North Main St. in Walnut Creek Calif. It was a dark green metalic 427 sitting on the show room floor. I had never seen anything like it, and really couldn't believe it. I think the cost was about $5,700. In those days there were a lot of MGs, Triumphs, and Vettes on the road, and Mustangs were everywhere. Cars use to break down a lot in those days.

Wayne

[WardL]

I went to a race at the Santa Barbara Airport in the summer of 1965 (I was 14) and as I walked around I saw a light yellow 289 Cobra just sitting on grass. I thought it cost about $6k. It must have been a roadster because I don't recall any side pipes. My Dad bought a '66 Mustang Fastback in October of 1965 for $2,850. While I remember the Cobra, I didn't think I would ever be able to actually buy one. I still can't believe it.

[Ron61]

My first one was at the old Shelby Shop in Los Angles and it had the 260 engine in it. Later I tried to buy one with the 289 but by that time they had moved on to the 427 styles and no one that I could find with a 289 would sell it. I should have bought one of the 427s I guess.

Ron

[JBCOBRA]

I was maybe 12 or so. Early 1970's and saw one drive into a mini market. I am pretty sure it was a comp car. 2 brothers with the last name Mallory had it for quite a while.
Would love to know what it was.

[Silverback51]

1966 at Kendall Ford in Eugene Oregon.

Red 427 street version. If I remember right, they had to discount it to sell it.

[Murky781]

In 69' or 70' on the way home from high school in my 65' Mustang that I thought was hot. Rt.4 in West Hartford Ct., went passed me like a rocket but I caught up to it at a red light. Just looked and drooled all over myself!

[letsboogie351]

In a car museum in York, Western Australia. I swung the door open to go in and the cobra was parked so close that the swinging door missed it by an inch! Almost crapped myself when I thought the door was about to bash into it

[Bobcat]

VIR , 1964 . Watched Mark Donahue and Hal Keck go at it . Hal got into the rear of Mark and bent up his right side ( I think ) fender from the headlight back . Mark had his trunk " modified " . Next year , also watched Graham ( Tombstione ) Shaw run his Orange Snake at VIR .

[Jamo]

Fittingly, 67 in Carmel on a cold foggy morning parked on Ocean Street. Blue S/C.

...like it was yesterday.

[Bill Bess]

I was standing in the middle of Robertson Blvd. in Hollywood , flagging traffic for the So. California Gas Company in 1965. I heard this loud, rough bad as* sound that was shaking the street. Up pulled this little English sports car with the engine and side pipes making so much noise and the windshield shaking so much it looked as though it would fall off the car.
WOW! what the heck is this thing? of course I soon found out it was a Shelby Cobra.
Bill

[computerworks]

First "visual sighting" - seeing the car at Motion Performance in Baldwin when we passed the shop on Sunrise highway.

First "encounter" - 427 on the L.I.E...I was driving my 66 GT350...we did an impromptu race from a slow roll... gave me a few car lengths lead and promptly blew my f*ing doors off.

[Dominik]

I saw my first one at the french Riviera, a white 289 in 1986(?).
Second one was a red 427 cruising on the german highway also mid 80s.
I met the owner about 15+ years later when he was about to sell it.

[mrmustang]

1967/1968 (I was very young ), Dockery Ford, got a ride in a slabside by a service manager (or the owner, I can't remember), got to sit in a 427, and I know for a fact that I have been in their GT350 "R" Model (parents might even have a picture of me in it (them). Countless other times through the late 60's and early 70's...Then nothing again until 1978/1979.........Then annually after that


Bill S.

[DAVID GAGNARD]

1968 when a local guy bought a big block Cobra to road race all over the south....he would occasionally come to a local junk yard in it hunting spare parts...he picked up a couple of toploaders and an extra 427 out of wrecked cars for his Cobra....
then again in 1970 when another local guy bought a 427 street car for his daily driver after selling his 65 GT-350!!!!!!!!!! I would see that red car almost daily, he kept it 2 years and sold it for a whopping $3,200.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

David

[deckofficer]

I'm sure you meant an AC Cobra, rare as they are. Since I'm not well versed (yet) with identifying a Cobra from the many fine replicas, I'm not sure if this one is the real deal. I saw it in Portsmouth, England around 1998. The dash makes me think replica.

[rustyBob]

the first one i ever spotted was from the back seat of my dads 66 Fairlane 500...
we had went to San Francisco for a day trip and i spotted one going around a corner and it was Black with Gold stripes just like the Hertz rental Mustangs....it was beautiful and i was HOOKED....

[Buzz]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

I'm sure you meant an AC Cobra, rare as they are. Since I'm not well versed (yet) with identifying a Cobra from the many fine replicas, I'm not sure if this one is the real deal. I saw it in Portsmouth, England around 1998. The dash makes me think replica.

You are correct. That car is a Dax - a popular and enduring British Cobra replica that, interestingly, was designed by and named after the very man who designed the original AC Ace that spawned the Cobra. His Name was John Tojeiro.

My first actual sighting was in the summer of 1983 (I think) in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was a beautiful black 289 roadster, top up, with a red interior and wire wheels. I was driving an '82 Trans Am at the time and it came up fast from behind and hung alongside briefly before exiting gracefully up an offramp and disappearing from view. I was used to seeing exotics in Edmonton (Alberta was booming with oil money) but that Cobra really unsettled me. I saw the same car again around 1985 and found out that it was an original CSX2XXX car owned by a local businessman.

My first close encounter came a couple of years later in Orange County, California. I was attendind a convention with an engineer colleague and we spotted a yellow and black 427 sitting on an exotic car lot as we drove by. I was into Vettes by then and had an '86 coupe. My buddy Steve had a 944 and was a hardcore Porschephile and we had a real bantering rivalry going on. We swung into the lot and got out, and we both walked around and around the Cobra in silence. It was a great looking fiberglass replica with a 427, yellow paint with black stripes and a black leather interior. Neither one of us spoke much for the next few blocks after finally driving away. I had this feeling somewhere in the pit of my stomach that I would definitely end up owning a Cobra.

[coryb]

1978. I took Heidi (my girlfriend) home for the summer and she knew I was a car nut. She mentioned that to her father and he said we were going to see a friend of his. We got to the friend's house and were introduced (I have no recollection of his name now...)

Heidi's father said I liked cars and asked if his friend would mind showing his to me. Smiling broadly he opened the garage door and there sat a 427 Cobra. He started to ask if I wanted a ride, and before he finished the question I had the door open and was climbing in.

I never forgot that ride - it was absolutely brutal! And I wanted one ever since. I can't afford a real one but I've got a replica and that's good enough for me. For now...

[Commodore]

Mid sixties for me. My school room mate, Carter Getty, had three Cobra's if I remember correctly. He took me for a ride in the blue 427 he had and I was addicted (I eventually bought that car).
RB